empire | park sunghoon

01] Sunghoon

"Bye mom" Sunghoon shouted without looking back into the house, taking his leave for another school day to start. 

Sunghoon lives alone with his mother in a big neighbourhood. His dad passed away a few years ago which was the first time Sunghoon had ever felt the pain of losing someone, especially a family member. 

But after the first one, more just came. He kept hearing from friends' parents that they had passed away due to sicknesses or other causes. He felt cursed, like there was no escape from the word death. 

Eventually they moved. His mother couldn't stand seeing her son in such a dark state, so they moved away a year ago to start a new life. Without any thoughts of a curse or grieving. 

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Sunghoon walked through the school doors quietly. He tried blending in with the rest of the students just to avoid any eye contact with someone. He wasn't an open kind of guy and he wasn't planning to be soon either. He was in desperate search for his locker as the student kept bumping into him back and forth. He was a tall guy, but constantly getting thrown left and right didn't make the vision clearer. 

"Sunghoon!" he heard his name being called as he saw a hand raise up by the lockers in front of him. He pushed himself out of the crowd and breathed heavily as he held his knees.

As he was inhaling air roughly he earned laughs from his two friends standing beside him. Sunghoon glared up at them, causing them to hold in their laughs, but still smiling.

"I'm sorry, are you okay?" they asked kindly, but he could still hear their small giggles when they talked. 

Sunghoon just nodded and opened up his locker as if nothing had happened. His locker was definetily clean, he could never stand seeing a mess somewhere as he felt like his concentration weren't good then. 

"Found anyone yet?" it was a joke and Sunghoon knew that. He was always his friends' little joking victim. They both got up together to joke with him, instead of them joking with each other too. 

"Niki I have told you, I'm not intrested in that. I don't have time" his last sentence came out as a whisper. He wanted to take care of his mother and help her with all the chors at home. He never wanted her to work alone, ever. 

He closed his locker with a loud thud and followed his friends who already knew that they shouldn't fight back about anything. One joke is enough for now, but new ones were coming and Sunghoon was prepared. 

"The new student is coming today Sunghoon" his other friend Jay, said to him as he was walking backwards, having Niki to guide him. Sunghoon just nodded, he had gotten the information last week after class, since the teacher wanted either Jay or Sunghoon to show the student around. Jay wasn't budging on doing it at all, leaving Sunghoon no choice but to take it. 

They bid their goodbyes to Niki as he went to the younger classes and they both went in to their own class. The familiar faces turned towards Jay and Sunghoon, making them walk to the far back quickly and take their seats. Jay was definetily popular in their class, the girls could kill to be his girlfriend.

Sunghoon had never heard a rumour about himself since he usually didn't really wanna be seen as popular. He didn't wanna have all the attention on him. He was fine with being "Jay's bestfriend". 

The class started and everyone took their seats as the teacher walked in. In behind the teacher came a student that they hadn't seen before. Her brown hair was covering her face and she ran to the very back and kept her head low. "She must be the new girl then" Sunghoon thought. 

The lesson went by slowly, Sunghoon kept glancing at the new girl at the other side of the classroom. He hadn't listened at all and he felt like the class would never end. Jay wasn't paying attention either, he was hiding his phone under the table. 

"Jay do you think she-" Sunghoon didn't get to finish his whispering as the bell went off and the teacher ended the class. He was gonna approach the new girl and say hi but as soon as he had packed his stuff down, she was gone. He sighed and followed Jay back to their lockers. 

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The day had ended and Sunghoon had only tried to get a glance at the new girl. He saw her in lunch having her hair back, his heart had jumped at the sight of her. She was a pretty girl and he felt like it was a shame for her to hide the beauty she has. After that she kept hiding, but her face kept showing up more after lunch. Probably because everyone had seen her by then.

Sunghoon bid his goodbyes to Jay and Niki and took of to his favourite place to get air. The rooftop. He liked the view from up there, even if the walls made you feel like a prisoner. 

The way up was always an exhausting one. The elevator could only be used by teachers but even if he could he didn't dare to. It was a rusty old elevator that had been there for ages, he could never bring himself to use that. He always reached he top with a deep heavy breathing, trying to catch more air into his lungs again. 

The metal door opened up with a creak making the sunlight shine on him. It was a warm summer day but it felt like any other upcoming summer day too. His eyes always reached the buildings that could be seen in the city, he didn't go there a lot. But fantasising about life having a positive impact was something he always did.

His life was a curse, he knew it. He kept worrying about Jay and Niki too which caused him to take extra care of them. They knew his backstory, they were the only ones who knew too. Besides from his mother then of course. 

"When..? When will this damn life disappear?!" he screamed his lungs out over the rooftop, making it echo over the schoolyard. He sat down against the rooftop walls and felt himself weaken as the tears started falling.